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Trump suggests renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America: Can POTUS change its name? What to know amid Gulf of America label
Trump suggests renaming Lake Ontario to 'Lake America' amid trade tensions with Canada. While he can influence US federal names.
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US President Donald Trump has floated another geographic name change, saying the United States is considering calling Lake Ontario “Lake America” amid an escalating trade dispute with Canada. But while Trump can influence the names used by the US federal government, he cannot unilaterally force Canada or the rest of the world to adopt a new name for the shared Great Lake.
Trump announced the proposal on August 25, saying on Truth Social that the United States was giving “serious consideration” to changing the name because it did not expect to be “doing much business with Ontario any longer.” Reuters reported that the remarks came after US-Canada trade negotiations collapsed and tensions between the two countries escalated.
In a video accompanying the proposal, Trump held up a map of Lake Ontario, crossed out its name and wrote “Lake America” over it.
“So Lake Ontario, that's gone,” Trump said before displaying the altered map.
Can Trump actually rename Lake Ontario?
Lake Ontario is one of North America's five Great Lakes and sits along the border between the Canadian province of Ontario and New York state. Because it is a shared international body of water, a US decision would not automatically determine the name used by Canada.
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ABC News reported that the US and Canada jointly manage the waterway, meaning a US naming decision would not bind Canadian authorities.
The US government does have a system for standardizing geographic names used by federal agencies. The US Board on Geographic Names is the official source for geographic names used by the federal government, while the US Geological Survey maintains the Geographic Names Information System, or GNIS.
The GNIS contains federally recognized geographic names and information about physical features.
That means the Trump administration could potentially pursue a change in the terminology used by US federal agencies. But such a move would not compel Canadian authorities, Canadian residents or international organizations to stop using “Lake Ontario.”
There is no single global authority that can rename a shared body of water for every country.
What happened with the Gulf of America?
Trump's Lake Ontario proposal follows his administration's earlier effort to rename the Gulf of Mexico.
In January 2025, Trump signed Executive Order 14172, titled “Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness,” directing the federal government to use “Gulf of America” instead of “Gulf of Mexico.”
The US Geological Survey later confirmed that the US Board on Geographic Names had implemented the change following executive and Interior Department orders. The Gulf of America entered the USGS official place-names database in February 2025.
The change illustrates the distinction between an official US federal name and a name accepted internationally. Google, for example, said US users would see “Gulf of America,” while users in Mexico would see “Gulf of Mexico” and users elsewhere would see both names.
Why Lake Ontario is more complicated
Lake Ontario presents a different challenge because the geographic feature is shared by two countries.
The lake's northern and western shores are in Ontario, Canada, while New York borders its southern and eastern shores. ABC News reported that the US and Canada jointly manage the waterway.
That makes Trump's proposal different from changing the name used by US agencies for a feature entirely within the United States. Even if Washington adopts “Lake America” for federal purposes, Canadian authorities would not be required to follow suit.
Canadian officials have already pushed back on the proposal. Reuters reported that Canada's Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Canada would continue calling it Lake Ontario.
So is Lake Ontario officially ‘Lake America’?
Trump has proposed the name, but that is different from an internationally recognized geographic renaming.
For now, Lake Ontario remains the established name used in Canada and internationally. A possible US federal naming change could affect government documents, maps and databases used by American agencies, but it would not erase the existing name worldwide.
The episode also mirrors Trump's earlier Gulf of America campaign: a US administration can determine the terminology used within its own federal system, but changing the name of a shared international geographic feature is far more complicated.
For Lake Ontario, “Lake America” is currently best described as Trump's proposed US name, not a completed global renaming.
